Lesson 15.2.11

In this lesson we gained two new members in our group which was quite convenient since our other two couldn’t make it to class, totalling 4 we could play out a small part of our game. But before we did that, we briefed the newbies. This was almost like a pitch, trying to make what they’d be involved in as interesting as possible, since working on something you aren’t that passionate about can be a bit challenging and stale. They found the idea interesting and quickly noticed loopholes and asked a lot of questions which helped us realise what new players would think and what we need to clarify. Fresh and inquisitive minds tend to notice what we overlooked, so that was helpful, one idea raised was the idea of the train not being totally stuck to a route but having the shortest possible route riddled with red lights. We couldn’t implement that idea for our first play through, although we did note it down, especially since it helped balance the advantageous elements of the train with disadvantageous red lights, making it fair.

The rules for our mini prototype were basic and because of this we encountered issues which we discussed as they happened, like a car being in the same grid as a cyclist, could a scenario be that the car has run over the cyclist? Making the small map grid was a challenge in itself, at first I marked that starting and finishing points to make the task more coherent: so I needed to make a route that goes from here to there but there needs to be more than one route and some obstacles that occur naturally, not due to sabotage scenarios, like a park or a set of traffic lights. However these two both hindered the car driver and the cyclist if they abide by the same rules as cars which they sometimes are known for not doing!

The 4 players started on different parts of the grid and had to get to a square marked as ‘end’. We took it in turns, and moved according to the rules we had set in place, cyclists move 2 spaces, pedestrian move 1 place, trains move 4 places and the cars moved 3 spaces, however, we immediately came across an issue, could we move only part of the spaces we are originally allocated? Initially we said no because it may make it easier to grab sabotage cards, which are supposed to be a risk, to go slightly off-route to grab a sabotage card to ruin someone’s journey. However, if to the train is one space away from the destination and therefore one space away from the victory condition, they shouldn’t have to awkwardly U-turn to make it to the winning grid in 4 grids, that would be a nuisance.

Below is the prototype, the bottom left hand corner is the goal; the destination. Each player started off on different parts of the map, it was difficult choosing where to place them so as to not give one player an unfair advantageous. The players gain sabotage scenario cards by stopping on grids marked with a star (*). Sometimes this causes the player to make a slight detour, making a risk, and playing tactically.

The yellow pieces of paper are the sabotage scenarios, our team picked these as soon as they started playing, it seemed as if these were a vital mechanic, there weren’t many, just one affecting each mode of transport. Although, they always seemed to occupy the one grid radius around the destination. As most of us got stalled trying to get past the last grid or so, we discussed setting up a ‘safe zone’, where sabotage can’t be placed in that area, although this will need to be tested out, because if a player gets past that mark there will be no way anyone else can win after that opint, which may hinder the game: placing limits on sabotage.

I used colour to make it clearer, marking off blue for the roads and orange for the players.